Do you want to encourage your students to take more risks with their writing and for them to further develop their story-planning abilities? This session compares creating a narrative to the design of a video game; great for those reluctant writers! Students complete several levels and finish the session with a detailed story-plan they can develop into a narrative.

Students will learn how to:

• Create interesting characters


• Set goals for their characters


• ‘Raise the stakes’ to give readers a reason to barrack for their main character


• Set obstacles in the path of the main character


• Create a villain to work against the main character

This session runs for one hour and is best suited to Year 3 – 6 students.

A session for students who love footy, writing or both! Students select various activities to complete from a football oval with all writing being footy-inspired. Several hands-on activities are part of the session.

Students will learn how to:

• Describe an action sequence


• Replace boring words with more exciting selections


• Write unique dialogue for characters


• Use similes to further engage readers


• ‘Show’ readers when writing rather than ‘telling’ them

This session runs for one hour and is best suited to Year 3 – 6 students.

Oh no! A student has dressed up as a teacher, marched into their classroom and made their classmates complete their homework. The session begins with a student being accused of impersonating a teacher, charged and sent to trial. The session revolves around preparing the court case.

Students will learn how to:

• Write detailed descriptions by describing the evidence


• Write character descriptions, using ‘show, don’t tell’, by describing the accused in teachers’ clothes


• Create an action-packed eye-witness account


• Re-write the yard duty teacher’s account of the incident by replacing dull words with exciting ones


• Develop interesting characters by creating positive and negative references for the accused


• Use word lists to describe body parts and to use these when writing descriptions

The session finishes with students dressing up and becoming members of the court as the trial is played out. The trial also gives all students the opportunity to share their writing from the session.

This session runs for one hour and is best suited to Year 3 – 6 students

Come on down! One lucky student is selected to don a golden jacket and perform the role of Mr or Mrs Jackpot for the session. The student host displays their gameshow moves while a voiceover plays and recreates a gameshow entrance to theme music. Co-hosting the session with Matt is the student’s next role as the rest of the group play a variety of entertaining and educational gameshows.

Students will learn how to:

• Write interesting character openings that reveal personality


• Identify examples of ‘show, don’t tell’ after playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire


• Use ‘show, don’t tell’ to show a character’s emotion


• Identify dull words and choose the more interesting replacements through The Word Is Right


• Write similes after watching a classmate play A Minute to Win It

This session runs for one hour and is best suited to Year 3 – 6 students

Want to teach your students the elements of a narrative and how to plan their own stories? Well, this is the session for you! Students act out the main events of Mr Sergeant and the Dodgeballs of Doom and then identify the setting, characters, problem, action to solve the problem, ending and theme. Together the class are then presented with the task of planning a narrative, with the help of Matt. The narrative is set in the students’ school and the problem? The Mischief Man has sprung characters to life from books in the school library. With the help of their main character (a student dressed as a superhero) the group plan what mischief the characters will cause and how to finish the narrative and defeat the Mischief Man.

Students will learn how to:

• Identify the elements of a narrative


• Learn that all stories have a setting


• Choose words to describe the qualities of a main character


• Invent interesting problems for narratives


• Brainstorm solutions for a problem in a narrative


• Name a story

This session runs for one hour and is best suited to Prep – Year 6 students

Students don’t want to simply hear about inventing interesting characters, they want to see their peers dress up and be the characters! This session takes students through the creative process of creating a captivating character. Each step is demonstrated by a student dressing up as one of Matt’s Crazy Relief Teachers.

Students will learn how to:

• Create a character profile from Ms Law


• Develop a ‘deep’ character with personality from Mr Sergeant


• Write individual dialogue for characters from Mr Crikey


• Describe character movement and use body language to show emotion from Mr Jackpot

Students will then be given an overview of creating captivating characters and then placing that character into the perfect plot.

This session can run from 1 to 1 ½ hours and is best suited to Year 3 – 8 students

A writing workshop that teaches advanced writing skills to students. Students will be taught the steps to create a captivating character and then develop a plot. The session also covers many writing skills used by authors. The workshop allows time for students to practise each skill in fun and engaging activities. When the session finishes each student will have a well-developed character and the plot for a narrative.

Students will learn how to:

• Identify what makes a narrative interesting


• Generate story ideas


• Test the interest level of a narrative before writing


• Create a captivating character and describe them using ‘show, don’t tell’


• Get to know their character and how they would react in different situations


• Write individual dialogue for their character


• Develop a list of mannerisms for their character


• Understand how to convey emotion and personality through symbolism such as belongings


• Form mental images in readers’ minds and use the senses


• Cut the word count without cutting the action

This session can run from 1 – 2 hours and is best suited to Year 7 – 10 students or extension writing groups at primary schools

A fun session aimed at multiple year levels. The beginning sees the students informed that Matt’s computer has been hacked and Mr Jackpot has stolen all the books from the Crazy Relief Teachers series. The students must visit seven different stations, each involving different codes, mysteries and tasks, to determine where Mr Jackpot has taken the books. Stations include code-breaking, finding a hidden message in a picture, locating a hidden message in a seemingly normal book and even searching through Mr Jackpot’s fan mail! The session finishes with students dressing up and holding a humorous court case with Mr Jackpot going on trial.

Students test out their knowledge of books by competing in a range of games, gameshows and book-related challenges. A wide range of games are played, allowing for students with different learning styles to achieve success. Games include finding characters in an illustration, charades, Celebrity Book Head, The Rich List and Family Feud! Games can be played individually or in teams.

Matt will take your staff through a variety of fun and interactive ways to teach writing. He will demonstrate skills that are easily taught and can make an immediate difference to your students’ writing. Sessions can be tailored to suit your staff’s needs or can cover a wide range of topics such as dialogue, creating captivating characters, planning a narrative, engaging reluctant writers and many other areas.

Matt loves making new activities to teach skills. Let him know what you want taught and he’s happy to develop a session tailored to your students’ needs.